10 usefull tips how to train your memory

Complain of poor memory? Better try to give her a good workout. Journalist Joshua Foer over a year and have tried dozens of techniques development of memory and became the winner of the world championship on memorization (there are competitions). His observations he described in his book “Einstein walks on the moon.” Share tips from the author.

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Turn on the imagination

It is best to remember those things that draw your attention. Turn boring information that you want to remember in vivid images. If you need to remember to buy a bottle of wine, milk and apples, draw in your mind an image of each item on this list. Pay attention to the details: the smell, color, taste and even sensations from touching him. Feel free to use the “hot” images — it is believed that they are remembered better than others. For example, if you are not just a carton of milk, and bathed in milk to your favorite supermodel, just remember to buy the product. To draw in the imagination should be beautiful or, conversely, scary images. For example, to not forget about the purchase of apples, imagine their rotten, wormy and wrinkled. By the way, the “real” images remain in the memory longer, so use your imagination and try to “animate” inanimate object, the same bottle of wine — imagine that she is able to sing or speak Spanish, and you will definitely not go without it from the supermarket.

Search for Association

New information should interact with the old one — the one that is already in your head. Do you often forget names and dates of birth? No wonder: these data don’t tell you anything. But when people tell you your profession, you will probably remember at least because any profession something associated. To just easy to remember names and dates, link them to what is significant and capable of causing the Association.

Be a bit of an actor

If you need to memorize a large piece of text for presentation, divide it into pieces and associate each of them with an emotion or a physical action (this technique is often used by actors). For example, the phrase “take a pen” is easier to remember if uttering it, you are take in hand the subject of writing.

Build “memory palaces”

Imagine the space that you know well — for example your room, office, the street where you go every day and fill it with images of what you want to remember. These “palaces of memory” can be arbitrary, but they must be a certain consistency. Focus that way you learn to remember things in chronological order.

Do not memorize phrases word for word

Need to memorize long text? Not worth it to cram. First, it is long, secondly, ineffective. Use a simple technique: divide the text into separate blocks and label each of them. And then use Association or build “memory palaces” to remember each part.

Use the rhyme

Remember the rhyme easy. Agree, the phrase “it’s a tiger that is angry because she can’t sleep” deposited in the head much faster than “this animal of the family Felidae, which is in a state of aggression because he can’t sleep”.

Divide long numbers into parts

The credit card number is divided into four blocks, and for ease of memorization: four four-digit number is easier to remember than 16 digits in a row. Combination 220641090545 difficult to learn. But try to break it into four parts, 220, 641, 090, 545, or into two fragments 22/06/41 and 09/05/45, and the task easier. You can also associate numbers with some event.

Write and draw

To remember information, draw, draw diagrams, use symbols. It develops creative thinking and helps to find the right Association, and hence it is better to remember.

“Turn” figures into heroes

PAO (person — action — object) is another effective technique of remembering. First you need to prepare: imagine every two-digit number from 00 to 99. any person who commits an action on a particular subject. For example, the number 13 could be David Beckham (man), which hits (action) the ball (object), figure 34 can turn into Frank Sinatra (person) singing (action) into a microphone (object), and the number 79 — Superman (man), flying (action) in the cloak (the subject). Think of your own images for each two-digit number — these images must be constant. Now try to combine the three images to remember a six digit number: 133479 “turn into” David Beckham (the man from number 13), singing (from among 34) in the cloak (item of number 79). Remember one vivid image of the brain much easier than a number of digits. And remembering the way you can easily “translate” it to a number.

Exercise regularly

Be prepared: your brain doesn’t immediately get used to a new mode of operation. But if you get in the habit to allocate memory for only 15 minutes a day, then after a couple of weeks to notice the first results.